Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- Twentieth Century (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
Paper, ink. 17.5 x 23 cm
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
26/07/2011
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Front and back of a menu from the Hotel Russell’s restaurant from a dinner given by the then Chairman of the ESB, R. F. Browne. Has the signatures of Sean Lemass, Henry Kennedy, T MacMahon, Arthur Cox, Dr Tom Murphy, Erskine Childers John H. Ryan, Brendan O’Cearbhaill, J. P. Digby, R. F. Browne. Has a picture of a fish in a chef’s hat playing the harp to lobsters.
This menu from the Russell Hotel, on the south side of St Stephen’s Green, suggests that politics and business have long been intimate. It was produced for a dinner hosted by R. F. Browne, Chairman of the ESB. The menu reads like a who’s who, with a line-up that includes Erskine Childers (President from 1973 until his death in 1974), Seán Lemass (Taoiseach from 1959-1966), Jack Lynch (Taoiseach in the 1960s and 1970s), Arthur Cox (Legal advisor to the ESB), Dr. Tom Murray (Secretary of the Department of Finance and future chair of the ESB), Henry Kennedy (a Director of the ESB, Bank of Ireland and many other companies), J. P. Digby (Chairman and founder of Pye Ireland and a Director of the ESB), John H. Ryan (a Director of Bank of Ireland), T. MacMahon (Director of the ESB) and Brendan O’Cearbhaill (Director of the ESB). Blue Nun wine was served at the meal.